The Allied intention is to secure key bridges over a series of rivers and canals in Holland to achieve a rapid advance onto the north German plain. On the first day, the US 101st Airborne Division secures bridges at Veghel and Zon. The US 82nd Airborne Division secures the bridge at Grave but not the one at Nijmegen. The British 1st Airborne Division, dropped near Arnhem, fails to secure the bridge there because of unexpected German resistance.





Unknown to Allied planners, the 9th SS Hohenstaufen and 10th SS Frundsberg Panzer Divisions are located in Arnhem for rest and refit from combat on the Eastern Front. Meanwhile, the British 30th Corps (part of British 2nd Army) attacks northward toward Eindhoven to relieve the paratroopers. To the west, Canadian forces, also part of British 21st Army Group, launch an attack on Boulogne after a preparatory bombing by the RAF.











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUC79o4Kmc

 

Montgomery boasted he never lost a battle.  After Goodwood, Market-Garden comes to mind; but that was a campaign and not just a battle.

http://www.rememberseptember44.com/

That idiot prolonged the war with his stupid plan.

Why Eisenhower let that guy talk him into this is a mystery.  Ike seemed to bend over backwards to show everyone he was listening to our British allies.

LC

I saw the movie just before I went to Fort Benning and Jump School.


I often look at this clip from A Bridge Too Far and wonder what it was like to be the Last Jumper exiting from the Last Aircraft.  In the Battle I mean.

I'm going to have to watch that movie again. Yes, they used far too many big name actors in that movie, but from all accounts, it's quite factual. A rarity for Hollywood.

I would NOT want to be a part of that

Wasn't the Pegasus Bridge the first one secured?

(Off to look it up) Nope, that was on June 6th, '44

Colorized Battle of Arnem

Amazing how much of that still applies in the corporate world nowadays.  

Sometimes I see things very similar to those two radio technicians who "did not want to rock the boat", or like that officer left behind because he "made many uncomfortable because he was too smart".



Great movie made about it and every time I watch it I think about the guys there in the real life.

Gonna watch A Bridge Too Far tonight.  Been a while since I last watched it.

Political realities.  We couldn't win the war without Britain so we had to defer to them sometimes on strategy, even if it was stupid in retrospect.



Kinda like a marriage, you don't get everything you want all the time.



 

because there is strength in numbers we needed the brits as much as they needed us.



 

Montgomery has Clinton grade Teflon to this day.